Costa Maya

 

When I first looked at the itinerary for our cruise, Costa Maya stood out as a port I'd never heard of. After a little bit of research, I learned why - it's a port created by cruise ship companies. At first I imagined it would be a write-off location, a place where there'd be nothing to do or see but super-touristy stuff in the port. Digging further, I discovered Costa Maya has more options than I'd expected and that many cruisers say it feels like Cozumel or Cancun did, thirty years ago.

While planning our shore excursions, we'd definitely wanted to get in a beach day and a day exploring Mayan ruins. Both options were available in Costa Maya. The all-inclusive Maya Chan Beach came highly recommended. For under $60 per person, you get transportation, beach chairs, food, an open bar, access to snorkeling equipment and more. I read that the beaches near Costa Maya aren't pristine - beach grass can swamp the area - but that you'd have a good time either way.

However, Mom and I decided to go with the Mayan ruins. At this point, we weren't sure if we wanted to undertake a day-long excursion to Chichen Itza at our next port of call, so this would be a way to ensure we saw some ruins. The exciting bit for me was the fact that the ruins in this area of Mexico are less visited than the ones farther north, and in most cases, can still be climbed.

Native Choice was a company I saw praised time and time again. They had several excursions to chose from, including packages with a visit to a pyramid and lunch at a local Mayan village. Mom loved the ease of their website, especially after dealing with Celebrity's horribly designed one. After comparing the excursions, I decided we should go with one of the longest ones - a visit to Dzibanche, a group of pyramids near the border with Belize.

We docked at Costa Maya at 9:00am. From the ship we could see the colorful port, including a giant Mayan Temple waterslide and treetop ziplines at nearby Maya Park. The port itself was totally Disney-Mexico - loads of shops, a pool bar, greeters dressed in Mayan costume for photos. We'd been given a map to Native Choice's office and followed it out of the port and down a dusty road. (Native Choice used to have an office in the port, but became so popular, they were asked to leave.) Upon arriving at the small office, we were given water bottles and color-coded wristbands. A few minutes later, we were introduced to our guide, Erick, and our driver, Abel. We piled into a van with another couple and a family of three. When the fourth group didn't show up, we set off promptly at 10:00.

On the long drive to Dzibanche, Erick kept us entertained with info about the site and Mayan culture in general. The most memorable part was a lesson in Mayan numbers. He taught us the different symbols - a line for five, a dot for one, and a shell for zero. Then he showed us how to write dates. Instead of working by tens, ancient Mayans worked with 20s. So instead of tens|hundreds|thousands, the place values became twenties|four-hundreds|eight-thousands. He had us work out a few dates on a whiteboard. (Who would expect doing math on vacation could be fun? Not this art major.)

We passed Laguna Bacalar, a pristinely blue lake where you can swim or kayak. By hour two of the ride, my tiny bladder was reaching its limit. I'd been watching how close we were on Google maps, and when I knew I wouldn't be able to make it, I asked if we could stop. We stopped at a tiny grocery... sweet relief. Seeing as the next part of the trip was a fifteen minute drive down a bumpy gravel road, I was so grateful we'd been able to stop.

Dzibanche itself was really neat - I'll go into more detail about the site itself in my next post, given that a 60-photo post seemed excessive. Dzibanche was the 5th and 6th century capital of the Kan dynasty, that later ruled Calakmul. It consists of three fairly large pyramids, plus several smaller buildings. Much of the site is still overgrown and two of the pyramids are climbable, so if you want to pretend to be Indiana Jones, this is a good place to do it.

Back in the van, we were given bagged lunches. Mom asked Abel later if his wife had fixed them - he seemed to get a kick out of this and said she had. Mom had her first Mexican Coke! (I didn't drink mine till we were twenty minutes from port, not wanting to make the van stop a second time, lol.) It was a long drive, but the scenery kept us occupied. We passed fields of corn and sugar, orange tree groves, and small pueblos with vendors selling pineapple slices with chili powder. We were dropped off at the port with an hour to spare.

 

Mom and I took this opportunity to do a little shopping. The first few stores we went in were pretty much the same - a hard sell for overpriced cheap knick-knacks. After walking a bit further, we found an upscale shop with artisanal crafts from around the country, reminiscent of the MAP store in Mexico City. I saw a gorgeous alebrije and asked one of the employees how much it was - I thought she might be joking when she said $600 USD, but I checked the price tag once she went away, and yep. It was $600 USD. I was happy to have some frame of reference from shopping in Mexico City - judging by their Oaxacan pottery, most prices seemed about double what they'd been at La Ciudadela.

I considered a few woven hangings before wandering to the shop next door. It had items of a similar quality, but seemed a little more relaxed or friendly. I immediately spotted some beautiful Otomi tapestries. A table runner was about $120 USD, which was expensive but reasonable for the hand-stitched work. While I was considering it, I also spotted some cute blue and white Talavera jewelry. I ended up getting both and Mom got some earrings and an ornament. I honestly could have bought out the shop. After buying some expensive local chocolate bars one shop down, it was time for us to rush to the Equinox. We paused for a quick pic with the Costa Maya sign and boarded with about ten minutes to spare.